La Poste prête à tout pour casser la grève
nearly 3 weeks now, Sincer e s postmen at the HLU parcel sorting center are on strike for the first time and recall the daily walkouts after having completed three full days of stopping the sorting and distribution of parcels at the start of the conflict. They claim a so-called “versatility” bonus of 7 euros per day, an increase of nearly 150 euros per month as part of a local agreement. In other words, a premium permanently inscribed in the employment contracts and on which the classic contributions are applied.
As we explain Bernard, worker at the HLU and CGT union representative, this mobilization is deeply rooted in the economic context marked by inflation: “The trigger for all this is that with galloping inflation, we can’t live from our work”. Théo*, who went on strike for the first time, adding a layer to our microphone concerning the consequences of inflation: “Diesel, shopping… everything is increasing. Before, I managed to put some money aside. There today, I can’t do it anymore, and on the contrary I have to dig into the money I had aside. The problem is that the salary does not follow.. With a salary that varies between 1350 euros and 1380 euros net per month, Océane, who has worked at the post office for 3 years, tells us “that it becomes very difficult with everything that increases”.
While the strikers demand an increase in their salary which they do not consider to be at its fair value, the management uses various methods not to respond to their demand and put an end to a movement which comes on the eve of the period. warm Christmas.
While the local and national management refer to the ball, each claiming that the granting of the bonus would not be their responsibility, the management did not hesitate from the start to put pressure on the strikers by directly attacking to income. For this, the management decided to abolish the “assiduity” bonus (of 125 euros per week, then 200 euros per week in December) for workers who would strike “even for a minute”but she also decreed that the two hours of stoppage would be counted as half a day less in the next payslip.
The crackdown did not stop at bonuses, however. Indeed, according to the testimony of the strikers, from the beginning of the mobilization, an “example” would have been sent with the dismissal of two temporary workers who supported the walkouts. Management presumes other reasons, but it would seem to everyone that it is a sanction linked to their position even though their contract was due for renewal.
Moreover, taking advantage of the increase in activity at the end of the year, the management does not hesitate to hire more temporary workers according to the strikers, which also seems to be a way of being able to replace them with precarious positions. . More explicitly, La Poste mobilizes a “special team”, the “task force”, which are postal workers based in the Dordogne moved throughout the region according to needs, and especially according to strikes: a method which aims to completely end the strike and its repercussions on the delivery of parcels.
Following these blows against the mobilization, the management of the HLU currently practices the policy of the “dead parcel” which consists in telling users that the parcels will not be delivered “because of the postal workers on strike” but that they can come look for them on the site. Added to this are the most “classic” attempts to reorganize, to distribute sorting and distribution to other sites, which is lagging behind.
This set of practices testifies to the determination of the management to strike wherever it can against the mobilized postal workers, but above all not to respond to their claim.
“The management is following the policy of: ‘we starve them, we starve them, we starve them, so they won’t have a choice, they won’t be able to go on strike for days’. In the same way, the only thing they chose to answer us for is threats: “If you go on strike, you won’t get this bonus, you won’t get this or that. “We do not want to give in to these threats” ended Bernard, for whom the strike is not about to stop.